THE TICKER

FDA approves new rotavirus vaccine

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it has approved Merck & Co.'s RotaTeq vaccine, which prevents infection by a virus that kills 600,000 children worldwide each year.

The clearance makes RotaTeq the only rotavirus vaccine sold in the U.S., Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck said.

Most of the children who die of rotavirus are younger than 2 and live in poor countries where they lack access to medical care, according to the World Health Organization's Web site. In the U.S., more than 70,000 children are hospitalized each year because of the infection.

RotaTeq is the first of three vaccines Merck plans to introduce this year to revive sales and profit as it faces generic competition for its biggest product, the Zocor cholesterol pill.

The rotavirus vaccine may have sales of $400 million to $600 million a year, according to Tony Butler, an analyst with Lehman Brothers in New York.

Merck won support for approval of RotaTeq from FDA advisers in December.